¹ International Theological Commission, Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church: <https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_20180302_sinodalita_en.html>, accessed 1 September 2024.

² See e.g. the Diocese of Canterbury website, ‘Governance’: <https://www.canterburydiocese.org/our-life/our-governance/#:∼:text=The%20Church%20of%20England%20is,of%20our%20diocese%20and%20Church>, accessed 1 September 2024.

³ C Podmore, The Governance of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, Thinking Anglicans, 7.1.2009, paras 3.21–22.

⁴ Principles of Canon Law Common to the Anglican Communion, Principle 21(1),(2),(3): <https://www.anglicancommunion.org/media/124862/AC-Principles-of-Canon-Law.pdf>, accessed 21 August 2024.

⁵ J Morris, A People’s Church, A History of the Church of England (London, 2022), 14–15.

⁶ The Vestries Act 1850 and Metropolis Management Act 1855 began the process, which was not completed until the creation of civil parishes in place of vestries in the Local Government Act 1894.

⁷ See Morris (note 5), chapter 12, The Crisis and Reform of the Confessional State, 215–233.

⁸ Principles, Principle 21(4), (5), (6).

⁹ Principles, Principle 21(7).

¹⁰ Principles, Principle 23(1)–(4).

¹¹ Pastoral Letter from Bishops Guli, Roger and Lynne, 23 January 2023: <https://www.chelmsford.anglican.org/news/travelling-well-together-a-pastoral-letter-from-bishop-guli-bishop-roger-and-bishop-lynne>, accessed 1 September 2024.

¹² The Welsh Church Act 1914 came into force on 1 April 1920. Reception of most Church of England ecclesiastical law was declared in The Constitution of the Church in Wales, chapter 1, para 5.

¹³ Britton v Standish (1704) Holt KB 141.

¹⁴ For example, The Order of Service for the Licensing by the Bishop of the Rev…, Diocese of Blackburn. See also Canons of the Church of England, Canon C12, Of the licensing of ministers under seal: <https://www.churchofengland.org/about/leadership-and-governance/legal-resources/canons-church-england/section-c>, accessed 21 August 2024.

¹⁵ Synodical Government Measure 1969, ss 6, 7, Sch 3.

¹⁶ CRR r 16(1)(a).

¹⁷ CRR r 39.

¹⁸ CRR Part 9: Parish governance: Model Rules.

¹⁹ Such as group and team ministries.

²⁰ CRR r 12,13.

²¹ CRR Part 9, rr M2, M4.

²² CRR Part 9, r M6.

²³ CRR Part 9, r M1.

²⁴ CRR r 1(8).

²⁵ Leading up to the enactment of the Church Assembly (Enabling Powers) Act 1919, there was disagreement between liberals and Anglo-Catholics. The latter group proposed confirmation, rather than baptism, as the basis of church membership. The 1919 Act is the precursor to the Church’s contemporary system of synodical government. Temple’s vision of the Church of England as a church for all the people of England is one also articulated by the current Archbishop of Canterbury.

²⁶ CRR Part 9, rr M16-8.

²⁷ CRR Part 9, rr M19, 20.

²⁸ CRR Part 9, rr M20-1.

²⁹ Canon B3(1).

³⁰ Canon B8(2).

³¹ Trusteeship, An Introduction for PCC Members, The Church of England: <https://parishresources.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/CofE_TrusteeBooklet-v4.pdf>, accessed 25 August 2024.

³² Charities Act 2011.

³³ Trusteeship (note 31), 2.

³⁴ Churchwardens Measure 2001, s 1(1).

³⁵ Churchwardens Measure 2001, s 1(3).

³⁶ Canon E1, Of churchwardens. They may be suspended by the bishop under the Churchwardens Measure 2001, s 6A if they are arrested or charged on certain offences in connection with children and young persons, and/or s/he is satisfied that they present a significant risk of harm to children or vulnerable adults and/or if they fail to comply with the statutory national safeguarding code.

³⁷ Canon E1; N Doe, The Legal Framework of the Church of England (Clarendon Press 1966), 241.

³⁸ House of Bishops, Parish Safeguarding Handbook (Church of England Publishing, 2018), p 9: <https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2019->, accessed 2 September 2024.

³⁹ Canon E1(5).

⁴⁰ <https://www.leeds.anglican.org/parish-share-explained.php#:∼:text=Parish%20Share%20is%20the%20amount,those%20costs%20are%20for%202024>, accessed 11 February 2025.

⁴¹ <https://www.savetheparish.com/parish-pack/>, accessed 28 August 2024.

⁴² <https://anglican.ink/2023/11/17/church-of-england-evangelical-council-responding-to-the-15-november-2023-general-synod-decision-looking-forward/>, accessed 11 February 2025.

⁴³ See GS Misc 1385, Review of the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011.

⁴⁴ Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, ss 1 and 106.

⁴⁵ See e.g. All Saints Spring Park Parochial Church Council v the Church Commissioners [2024] UKPC 23.

⁴⁶ Welsh Church Act 1914, s 3(1).

⁴⁷ N Doe, ‘The Constitution of the Church’ in N Doe (ed), A New History of the Church in Wales, Governance and Ministry, Theology and Society (Cambridge, 2020), 83.

⁴⁸ Ibid, 89, 100.

⁴⁹ See Church of Ireland website: <https://www.ireland.anglican.org/about/about-us>, accessed 2 September 2024.

⁵⁰ Constitution of the Church in Wales, IV D.1.

⁵¹ Constitution of the Church in Wales, IV C.

⁵² Constitution of the Church in Wales, IV C 1(3).

⁵³ Constitution of the Church in Wales, IV A 20.

⁵⁴ Constitution of the Church in Wales, IV D 3(2).

⁵⁵ The author is grateful to Professor Doe for sight of his paper, The Parish in Anglican Canon Law. Although some details have altered with the passage of time, that paper’s contents remain substantively up-to-date and offer an excellent study of the subject across the Anglican Communion.

⁵⁶ For example, Papua New Guinea: canon no. 5 of 1977, 19: representation; Southern Africa: canon 27: the annual vestry elects the representatives; Wales: Constitution IVC: Parochial Administration.

⁵⁷ For example, Scottish Episcopal Church: Code of Canons, canon 60.1; Constitution of the Church in Wales, IVC Pt III, 8; the Church of England: Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1956, s 2(2); and Australia: Diocese of Sydney, The 7th Handbook (1994), § 7.23.